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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The book was great, sadly the German translation wasn’t very good. I’d recommend to read it in English.
Hello I am OBSESSED with this book oh my god. I read the last page and immediately either wanted more or wanted to read it all over again.
It definitely read YA at times, and our main character sleeps and/or passes out like every other chapter, but honestly those are my only complaints here. I loved the world, the magic, and the characters. Artemisia and the revenant have such a fantastic relationship, I could read about them for like 4 more books. The revenant is such an interesting character with interesting history that I would really love a sequel just for more of it.
The big twist towards the end was well done if not a little out of left field, but it was fun that it was so unexpected and I liked the way our main characters had to deal with it. There’s a great balance of magic, plot, and relationship development here, and all our main characters felt nicely fleshed out.
The revenant kind of reminded me of sword-nimi / Nightblood from Cosmere which was fun. It has such a big personality and I liked how we learned more about it with Artemisia as things happened to her or to both of them.
dark
emotional
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A captivating and different take on revenants, relics and ghosts/spirits. While the first couple of chapters were a little slower going the story soon picked up and moved at a fast pace with plenty of action. I was drawn into the story and characters quickly both unique and compelling. Artemesia was very different from most FMCs and the way in which the trauma from her childhood had shaped her and also still effected her felt very authentic. I also think that the revenant character was such an intriguing one and he easily became one of my favourite characters in the book. He somewhat reminded me of the 'nightmare' character in One Dark Window. The magic system had both divine/religious magic and 'old magic' which was based in rituals with symbols. The intertwining of them was done well. There isn't really any romance in the book but for me this didn't detract from it at all.
What to expect:
- Divine magic
- Ritual and symbol magic
- Spirits, thralls and revenants
- Forgotten history
- Found family
- Reluctant hero
What to expect:
- Divine magic
- Ritual and symbol magic
- Spirits, thralls and revenants
- Forgotten history
- Found family
- Reluctant hero
Tbh I zoned out a few times while listening the audiobook, so the plot is a bit foggy for me, but I still loved the story. It's dark and slow and quite different from most YA fantasy, for example there's zero romance, which is so nice and fits the book so well! I really liked Artemisia, despite (or because) of her awkward, quiet nature. Yes, she was a bit 'not like other girls', but for once it made sense for the character and the trope wasn't misogynistic and unnecessary, as it usually is. As someone who is socially awkward and finds eyecontact uncomfortable, I could relate to Artemisia a lot. Plus, I think she's supposed to be on the autistic and aro/ace spectrum, which is really nice representation.
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I appreciate that this novel went in a direction that I did not expect it to but I'm not sure at the end of things I would not have preferred a different direction altogether, but that's on me and not the writer. Vespertine is well written and the main characters are very well developed especially on the interior. I appreciate how well we get to know Artemisia and the Mogget inspired Revenant. Given the wonderful beginning, I imagined this novel riffing on the journey of the abhorsen in Garth Nix's novels, but while Vespertine seems inspired by Nix's excellent and very dark series, Rogerson's novel turns into more of a buddy friend narrative except that both of the main voices are inside of one character. The priest is a good villain and I love the idea of the Grey Sisters and the Sorrow, I found myself wanting Vespertine to spend less time with Artemisia playing host to the Revenant, as amusing as it can be at times. Again, this preference is my own and Vespertine is well worth a read as I think many readers will appreciate that it didn't go to far down the abhorsen path but focused on the well being and relationship of two very complex characters. Again, cool world build too. I will probably read the second book in the series if there is one just for the world.